Written  by London Swaminathan

Article No. 1962

Dated 29 ஜூன் 2015.

Uploaded at London time : 19-35

There are more wonders in the Rig Veda, the oldest book in the world! Three feminine names are repeated by various Rishis in almost all the Ten Mandalas of the Rig Veda! That too, they always say it in the eighth stanza of those hymns! Mysterious No.8 is linked to the Goddesses!

Those three names are SARASVATI, BHARATI, ILA!

ANOTHER GREAT WONDER IS FROM THE HIMALAYAS TO KANDY IN SOUTHERN MOST SRI LANKA, THEY USE THE NAMES FOR GIRLS TILL TODAY! CONTINUOUSLY FOR AT LEAST 3700 YEARS!

This is a literary wonder in the world! All other Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Mayan goddesses have gone into museums or their corrupted names only are used today.

This blasts the theory, put forth by the half-baked foreigners, that Hindus worship male gods only. There is only one religion in the world, that is Hinduism, that worships the same Goddesses from the beginning until today. No other religion worshipped Goddesses like this. I have already given the names of 30 other names of the goddesses and 20+ names of the poetesses in my earlier posts. There also, Hindus scored another first by projecting 20 plus Vedic poetesses, which is unheard in any part of the world. Tamil Hindus presented another galaxy of 20 plus poetesses 2000 years after the Vedas.

Not only that Sarasvati became Sara and her husband Brahma became Abraham in the Bible. That is, since the ancient Yadu kula Hindus migrated to the Middle East, they retained the Hindu names. Like we name our daughters Saraswati today, Sara’s dad named his daughter Sarasvati. We abbreviated the names as Sarasu or Saras and the Jews abbreviated the name as Sara. I will write about the Yadu=Juda (Y=J) connection another day. Now let us look at the oldest names of the girls in the world.

Ila is more popular among Gujaratis. Sarasvati is more popular among Tamils. Bharati is famous in North India. Shankaracharyas take the name Bharati (Sringeri) or Sarasvati (Kanchi) when they take Sanyas until today. This started in the Rig Vedic days!

What are the APRI suktas? Where are they?

Names of Goddesses are in the Apri Suktas. Apri Suktas are repeated by everyone as a convention. The Apris are various forms of Agni according to Sayana.  Apris are divine or deified beings and objects to which the proprietary verses are addressed.

Apris are the collective names of gods and deified objects, according to Ralph Griffith.

A typical 8^th stanza looks like the following:–

“May Bharati with all his sisters, Ila accordant with the gods, with mortals Agni, Sarasvati with all kindred rivers , come to this grass, three goddess , and seat them”.

Apri Suktas: RV 3-4-8; 7-2-8; 2-3-8, 1-13-8/9; 1-188-8; 5-5-8; 9-5-8; 10-70-8;10-110-8.

These three goddesses are also in the Yajur Veda 28-18; 27-17; 20-43 and several other places.

Rig Veda has more than 450 poets. We have all those beautiful names of the sages/poets in the Anukramani (Index). Hindus were the first in the world to add Contents and Index to a book!

All the important Rishis sung Apri Suktas in which these three goddesses are invoked in the eighth stanza. What is the significance of No.8? Why did they recite the three names in 8^th Stanza of those hymns? No one knew the answer! Another mystery in Rig Veda!!

Rig Vedic poets are spread over at least ten generations which means not all the poets lived at the same time. It took 300 to 500 years to “see or hear” these many hymns. Rishis are called Manthra Drshta; they “saw” the mantras like we see the TV. They did NOT compose them.

Sangam Tamil literature also had over 450 poets. For them to compose 30,000 lines it took 300 years according to Tamil scholars. So, who did tell the Rig Vedic Seers to sing about these three goddesses in the eighth stanza? Was there a grammar book to dictate them some rules? Who did they tell them to sing about these three Goddesses in the Apri suktas? Another mystery!

Sarasvati is the goddess of wisdom. Hindus named the largest river Sarasvati. They praised Sarasvati more than the Sindhu and Ganga. Only when it dried and disappeared into desert, Ganga became more prominent. So anything that nourishes your physical body (by water) or your intellect, they named it Sarasvati. They associated the names Bharati and Sarasvati with the languages. In one sukta/hymn, Bharati is replaced by her other name Mahi.

Various names including Manu are occurring in the Apri Suktas

Controversy about Apri Suktas

Shrikant G.Talageri, in his book The Rig Veda – A Historical Analysis, gives the following:–

Under the title “Untrustworthiness of Anukramani- statements Shown by the Repetitions”, Bloomfield remarks that the statements of the Sarvanukramani betray dubiousness of their authority … the Anukramani ascribes one and the same verse to two or more authors, or to ascribe it to two or more divinities. The Apri stanzas 3-4-8 = 7-2-8 are ascribed in the third book to Viswamitra gathina, in the seventh book to Vasitha Maitravaruni.”

Talageri refutes this:-

The repetitions do not disprove the authenticity of the Anukramanis; in fact it proves the authority of the Anukramani(index):

a)The repetitions in the Rig Veda are representative of a regular phenomenon in classical and liturgical literature throughout the world. Consider for example what Gilbert Murray says about similar repetitions in Greek literature: “descriptive phrases … are caught up ready made from a store of such things: perpetual epithets, front haves of lines, back halves of lines, whole lines, if need be, and long formulae. The stores of the poets were full and brimming. A bard need only put it his hand and choose out a well-sounding phrase. Even the similes are ready made. Quoting this B K Ghosh notes, “All this may be maintained, mutatis mutandis, also of the Rig Vedic poetry.”

In the case of the Rig Veda it is significant that every single repetition pertains to a literary or liturgical phrase. In fact, the more the literary or liturgical the reference, the more the likelihood of repetitions: the longest repetition of three consecutive verses is in the liturgical apri suktas of the Visvamitras and Vasisthas: 3-4-8/11=7-2-8/11.

The composers of the RV were members of ten priestly families, and each family had its own Apri Sukta. In later times, during performance of any sacrifice, at the point where the Apri sukta was to be recited, the conducting Rishi was required to recite the apri sukta of his own family.

Shrikant Talageri used the Apri suktas to  decide the chronological order of the family mandalas as well.

My comments:

Repetitions in Tamil Literature!

Bloomfield is wrong and Gilbert Murray and Talageri are right. The repetitions are not only in the Vedas and Greek literature, but also in the Sangam Tamil literature. Sangam Tamil literature is not religious, but a collection of 2400 secular poems. The repetition is in the oldest Tamil grammar Tolkappiam as well. In fact Tolkappiar, the author of Tolkappiam, has used it unnecessarily, quite contrary to Panini.(Tolkappiar, while describing the six divisions of living beings repeat the same line six times in one Stanza!!. Another Tamil anthology Ainkurunuru (500 short verses) have got more than 100 repetitions. Oldest of the Sangam literature Purananuru has repetitions of lines, stock phrases and several other clichés. This is the trend in any classical literature.